I reflect on the times friends or people I knew got pregnant in college. If it was someone I barely knew, I'd offer to drive her to the clinic myself. (Thank God no one ever took me up on it.) But curiously, if the person was a friend I had known for years and genuinely cared about, abortion was the last thing I wanted for her. I desperately tried to talk her out of it and then agonized when she wouldn't listen. I knew I must be contradicting myself somehow, but I didn't want to explore that. Abortion was good enough for all the uncaring faceless women of the world, but not for me, and not for anyone I cared about. What that says, what it really says about me is that I didn't care about all those other women for whom I advocated abortion. I didn't care about them or their children. Abortion was just a solution for people who, outside of my own little world of acquaintances, existed to me as much as individuals that pass by in cars on the interstate.

I don't think anything ever would have changed my mind, because to evolve would have required genuine thought, and it never occurred to me to think at all about it. It was abortion for crying out loud, the big solution. What was there to think about? Besides, it was always someone else's problem. It would never effect me, because I was smarter and nicer and made better choices. It was settled, and there was nothing anyone could say to cause me to reexamine my hollow beliefs. But one person did come and grow with me for a time, and I learned everything I needed to know without any words at all.

Fifteen-year-old Gwendolyn Drummer was a student at Harry Ellis High in Richmond, California, when she was admitted to Doctor’s Hospital of Pinole for a legal abortion, to be performed January 28, 1972. Her doctor chose the saline abortion method.

These abortions are performed by replacing amniotic fluid with a strong salt solution. In the decades after WWII, saline was being abandoned in countires where abortion was legal, in favor of safer methods. But as laws loosened up in the US, American docors adopted the method. A British study published in 1966 found that the saline would enter the mother's bloodstream and cause brain damage. Swedish researchers noticed an unacceptably high rate of complications and deaths. Sweden and the Soviet Union followed Japan in abandoning saline abortion as too dangerous by the late 1960s.

Gwendolyn's doctor injected the saline into her utuerus. It got into Gwendolyn's blood stream, just as British, Japanese, Soviet, and Swedish doctors had repeatedly warned it could do. Gwendolyn suffered organ damage. She developed pneumonia, and died on January 31.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

John Baxter Hamilton (pictured) was convicted of the 2001 Valentine's Day murder of his wife in her home. Another abortionist convicted of murdering his wife, this one by botching a liposuction, was Joe Bills Reynolds. Reynolds has since died. He, like Hamilton, was an Oklahoma City resident. And currently, Alabama abortionist Malachy DeHenre is on trial for the shooting death of his wife. Wife-killing abortionist trifecta complete?

Richard Cunningham, MD performed the fatal abortion on Shiela Watley in 1987.

Someone was looking for infection after abortion. I have 73 cases listed here, all fatal. If you go to the main RealChoice site, there's a search box and you can find non-fatal cases. There are far too many of them to list individually.

Dehenre does have his fan club, but they're standing behind him on racial grounds and not because he's an abortionist.

While we're mentioning Summit, that's the same facility where nurse Janet Onthank King diagnosed a woman as being six weeks pregnant, gave her RU-486, and sent her home to abort rather than sending her to a hospital to have her dangerously high blood pressure addressed. Within days she was in the hospital expelling a dead near-term infant. King is currently on trial for practicing medicine without a license.

Imagine if a prolife center had two of its staff facing criminal charges at the same time! And one of them facing murder charges! It'd be blasted on the front page headlines across all the MSM.

Aretta H. sued after being admitted to Midtown Hospital in Atlanta for a second-trimester abortion to be performed by Dr. Edwarm M. Portman January 30, 1993. Aretta faulted Portman with failure to dilate her cervix sufficiently. He then "failed to immediately stop the procedure and initiate a new course of action once the considerable amount of scar tissue and resistance was encountered upon entrance into the uterine cavity." Aretta suffered uterine and bowel perforations. The fetal head was pushed into her abdominal cavity. She had to have a hysterectomy and colostomy. Even her appendix was so badly damaged it had to be removed. She required additional hospitalization to have her bowel function restored, to have adhesions in her pelvis sofetned and removed, and to have a bladder laceration repaired. The suit also faulted Portman with failure to take appropriate precautions necessitated by Aretta's history of previous C-sections and no vaginal deliveries. Midtown was a member of the National Abortion Federation. (Fulton County State Court Civil Action File No. 94VS94495E)

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Patricia T. went to Dr. Ulrich Klopfer for routine obstetric care on January 29, 1981. According to the suit she later filed, Klopfer told Patricia that her 10-week fetus was dead. She consented to a suction procedure to remove what she believed was a dead fetus. Her uterus was punctured in two places during the procedure. Patricia hemorrhaged and went into shock. She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Doctors there had to remove her uterus, fallopian tube, and ovary. Patricia was hospitalized for a week. Only after her ordeal did she learn that the fetus had not been dead until Klopfer's interference killed it. (Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 83L 1941)

Other January 29 anniversaries include:

Elizabeth P., age 28, sued after an abortion by Dr. Daniel C. Ludwig at Midwest Population Center January 29, 1974.Elizabeth faulted Ludwig and other MPC staff with failure to inform of her of the risks of abortion, failure to perform a complete pre-op physical exam, and lack of post-operative advice. Elizabeth suffered perforation of her fallopian tube and was hospitalized February 14 - 22 for care, including surgical removal of the injured tube. (Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 75L 692)

Nancy S. underwent a traumatic abortion at the Fargo, North Dakota Women's Health Organization abortion clinic. The next day, Nancy expelled tissue while she was in the shower. "I thought it would be a blood clot, and I found in my hand the face, shoulders and arms of my baby."

Donna S. sued after an abortion performed by Dr. Michael Ross January 29, 1982. Her vaginal wall was lacerated. Thomas Gresinger performed three separate repair procedures at Fairfax Hospital, but was unable to stop Donna's bleeding. He further performed exploratory surgery which resulted in loss of Donna's fallopian tube. (Arlington County Circuit Court At Law No. 25571)

January 29 is also the anniversary of the death of abortionist George Kabacy's patient Tamara L. Willis due to failure to diagnose her cancer. (Multnomah Circuit Court Case No. A8908-04425)

Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy is a small chain of abortion mills that has been in trouble since (off the top of my head) about 1999, with ownership seeming to change hands and management a bit squirrely, to say the least. Facing an abortionist shortage, the owner just started doing the abortions herself. Well, thank God, she got arrested before she managed to kill any patients. Though she may have actually have been an improvement over her previous, more "qualified" abortionists, Lawrence Reich, Nicholas Braemer, and Phillip Rand.

Here's a more thorough report from Operation Rescue West. They say that Braemer had a dead patient to his discredit, but my site doesn't have anything connecting him to a patient death. So I don't know if there's another death I don't know about, or if he is the guilty party in one of the cases I've already documented.

The whole mess puts me in mind of Clinica Feminina de la Comunidad, another seedy California abortion mill that catered primarily to poor Hispanic women. When they couldn't replace their "qualified" abortionist, the owner, Alician Hannah, simply started doing abortions herself. She ended up killing Angela Sanchez and trying to dump her body to escape legal repercussions.

The following letter (edited to disguise the identity of the writer and details about the situation) was penned after what was clearly a very difficult choice:

I wasn't earning anywhere near enough to support us. Everything I had seemed to fall to pieces. True we could have gone bankrupt and maybe gone on welfare.

But that brings me to my second point. Knowing the type of location that one would have to live in plus the environment for the child plus the effect on them knowing they were on welfare was just more than I thought they could and should endure.

So that is the sum of it. If any one of these had been the condition we might have pulled through but this was just too much. At least I'm certain that they have gone to heaven now. If things had gone on who knows if that would be the case.

After it was all over I said some prayers from the hymn book. That was the least that I could do.

I leave myself in the hand of Gods justice and mercy. I don't doubt that he is a able to help us, but apparently he saw fit not to answer my prayers they way I had hoped that they would be answered. This make me think that perhaps it was for the best.

Also, I'm sure many will say "How could anyone do such a horrible thing?" - my only answer is it isn't easy and was only done after much thought.

After making and implementing the "horrible" choice, the author of the letter started life afresh -- a new community, a new job, and eventually a new spouse. A very happy life.

Who are we to judge what went on between this person and God? Who are we to judge how another person decides to deal with an intensely stressful situation, facing bankruptcy and/or the welfare rolls? Surely the rightness of the decision is evident in how life played out after the choice, right? Not great wealth, but a solid job, a comfortable home life with a loving spouse. Looking at the end results, surely this person did the right thing, even though it involved a really tough choice.

I'm sick of the argument that since abortion gives some women the oportunity to have "the good life" it must be okay. If you can argue backward from how much it benefits a particular woman, then you can also argue backward from the happy life John List had -- right up until the killjoys at America's Most Wanted spoiled it.

Evangeline McKenna was 38 years old when she checked into Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles for an abortion and tubal ligation. Two days after the procedure, she had a seizure. She stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest. Doctors told the family that Evanegline was brain dead, but they held out hope and asked that she be put on life support.

On January 28, 1974, after twelve days on life support, Evangeline was pronounced dead.

Evangeline's death, in addition to being a tragedy for her family and loved ones, also highlights the disproportionate damage that legal abortion causes among Blacks in the United States.
Though black women are only 13% of the female population in the US, and though they are more likely than white women to oppose abortion, they account for a full 35% of legal abortions reported. Black women, like Evangeline, also account for fully 50% of reported legal abortion deaths.

Olive Ash worked for a farmer, Mr. Beckwith, in Vermont, in the summer and fall of 1857. She was about 20 years old, and she lived with the family during her employment. In the autumn of that year, Olive returned to her family home in Sutton.

On December 28, 1857, Olive and her twin sister, Olivia, left their home and went by rail to the home of their cousin, Levi M. Aldrich, in Bradford, ostensibly to visit his widowed mother. During the visit, Olive seemed to her family to be in normal health. The sisters remained at Aldrich's home about two weeks, then said that they were going to meet some friends at the Fairlee depot for an excursion into New York or Massachusetts. Instead, when they arrived at Fairlee depot they took a wagon to the home and office of Dr. William Howard, about six miles north of the depot and three miles south of Bradford.

On Friday, January 29, 1858, Olive's mother got a telegram telling her to come to Howard's home. She quickly complied, and was there when her daughter died at about 6 in the evening. Dr. Howard got a coffin for Olive, and the twins' mother took her daughter's body by train to Sutton.

On February 3, Olive's body was exhumed for an autopsy, which was performed by Dr. Frost and witnessed by Dr. Bliss, Dr. Carpenter, and others unnamed. Frost found evidence of recent pregnancy as well as signs of instrumentation and damage to the cervix. Dr. Frost believed that Olive had hemorrhaged due to the damage to her cervix. He removed and preserved her uterus. Another physician examined the uterus and concluded that the placenta had been retained for some time after the abortion, and that this retained placenta would also cause hemorrhage.

In the trial of Dr. Howard, Olivia testified that she knew her sister was pregnant and had accompanied her on the journey knowing that Olive was planning to get an abortion. Olivia said that Daniel Beckwith, the grown son of the farmer Olive had worked for, met them at their cousin's house, and he gave them the information on where to go and who to see for the abortion.

From Olivia's testimony, the sisters arrived at Dr. Howard's house and informed him that Olive was about six months pregnant. He spoke to the sisters and indicated that he wanted to consult with Daniel Beckwith before deciding if he was going to proceed with an abortion. The sisters remained at Dr. Howard's house for a few days until Olive got a letter from Beckwith, and she read part of it to Dr. Howard. He then agreed to perform the abortion for a sum of $100.

Dr. Howard told the sisters that the process would take three or four weeks. He gave Olive a concoction to drink two or three times. On the Friday the week after the sisters' arrival, Dr. Howard performed some sort of procedure on Olive as she lay on the bed in the room the twins shared. Olivia was permitted to remain with her sister during this procedure. She said that Dr. Howard used two or three of the three or four instruments he had at hand. Olive was in pain during the procedure, which took two or more hours, and resulted in a gush of fluid.

The following day, Dr. Howard performed another, similar, procedure on Olive, who clutched her sister's hand and reported great pain. Olive bled profusely. After this second operation, Olive kept to her bed.

That night, Dr. Howard performed yet another procedure, very painful for Olive to endure. This time he used instruments then reached in with his hand and pulled out a fetus, which Olivia reported as being about two-thirds the size of a newborn. Dr. Howard removed the fetus from the room, and Olivia never saw it again.

Olive bled after this, but not profusely. Afterward her behavior struck Olivia as violent and irrational. A girl named Margaret Kelley, who lived at Dr. Howard's house, also testified that Olivia had laundered her sister's bloody clothing while at the doctor's house. Bloody clothing were introduced into evidence, including two chemises and a small quilt or pad. The witness, Mrs. Wilson, who produced the evidence indicated that she'd found these things hidden in the rafters of the house when she was cleaning in the fall of 1858.

Mrs. Wilson also said that about two weeks after Dr. Howard's arrest, she saw one of Dr. Howard's dogs come out from underneath the office privvy with something in its mouth. She made the dog drop what it was carrying and discovered it to be a fetus of about four or five months, in a state of decomposition. While she was looking at the fetus, another of the doctor's dogs snatched the fetus up and ran off with it. The dogs, she testified, had been digging at the privvy for some time before retrieving the fetus. Mrs. Wilson's description of the fetus she'd seen the dogs with was similar in size to the fetus Olivia had described taken from her sister. Olivia had also testified to having seen a number of fetuses of various sizes preserved in containers in Dr. Howard's premises.

The defense presented a witness named Susan Squires, who was staying at Dr. Howard's place from January 23 until after Olive's death. She said that the Thursday before Olive's death, she had spoken with Olive while Olivia was eating lunch. Susan said that Olive told her that she didn't expect to live, that she'd taken poisons before coming to Dr. Howard, that Dr. Howard was not to blame in her death but had done everything in his power to help her. Susan said that Olive seemed rational at the time, but that by Friday morning Olive seemed to have lost her reason.

On cross examination, Susan indicated that she had stayed at Dr. Howard's off and on for two years, to do sewing and to receive medications. She indicated that on Thursday afternoon, at about 4:00 Friday morning Olive managed to kick the footboard off the bed, prompting Olivia to summon Susan and a Mrs. Green into the room. Olive complained of being tired and continued to thrash and kick for a short time before settling down.

Mrs. Green was brought as a witness. She said that she had gone to Dr. Howard's on Tuesday afternoon and remained there a week visiting the doctor's wife. She first saw Olive on Wednesday morning, when Olivia had summoned her to help attend to Olive, who was trembling, delierious, and bleeding from the nose. Mrs. Green also went to Olive during the episode when she'd kicked the footboard off the bed. She'd helped the others restrain Olive. Mrs. Green testified that Olive never revived enough to speak after that.

Dr. Howard's witnessed attempted to show that Howard was treating Olive for a miscarriage. Dr. Howard was nevertheless convicted.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

On January 24, 1987, 37-year-old Belinda Byrd had an abortion performed by Stephen Pine at Inglewood Women's Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Belinda was left unattended for three hours after the abortion, and was found unresponsive. Staff at Inglewood delayed an additional two hours before transferring her to a hospital with appropriate emergency services.

Belinda was one of 74 women who had abortions performed in Inglewood's single operating room that day, and one of 24 whose abortions were performed in the final two hours of the day. Belinda remained comatose until her death on January 27.

Belinda's mother wrote to a Los Angeles district attorney:

I am the mother of Belinda Byrd, victim of abortionists at [Inglewood]. I am also the grandmother of her three young children who are left behind and motherless. I cry every day when I think how horrible her death was. She was slashed by them and then she bled to death ... and nobody cares. I know that other young black women are now dead after abortion at that address. ... Where is [the abortionist] now? Has he been stopped? Has anything happened to him because of what he did to my Belinda? Has he served jail time for any of these cruel deaths? People tell me nothing has happened, that nothing ever happens to white abortionists who leave young black women dead. I'm hurting real bad and want some justice for Belinda and all other women who go like sheep to slaughter.

In the wake of the series of abortion deaths at Inglewood, the authorities inspected the place. Among other things, they caught an abortionist writing post-operative examination notes without even examining the patients. When the state closed Inglewood for numerous violations, the facility simply re-opened as Inglewood Women's Clinic; as a clinic rather than a hospital they were no longer subject to the same intense scrutiny and were able to remain in business.

Harvey Lothringer is the abortionist who chopped up Barbara Lofrumento in 1962 and put her down the garbage disposal and the toilet after she died in the middle of a back-alley abortion he was performing in his New York office. Lothringer eventually got his license back, became a prison psychatrist, and took Nancy Blumenthal off her antidepressants. She killed herself.

Ingar Lee Whittington Weber died January 26, 1990, in a Louisiana hospital. She had been treated for acute kidney failure after an abortion performed at Delta Women's Clinic in Baton Rouge on January 20, 1990.

Ingar's family sued the clinic and its doctors, Richardson P. Glidden and Thomas Booker. They faulted the doctors with failing to diagnose Ingar's kidney problems, or her deteriorating physical condition, before, during, or after the abortion.

Delta had also been sued following the death of another abortion patient. This woman was most likely 27-year-old Sheila Hebert, who died after an abortion on June 6, 1984.

Delta was sued for an abortion performed in 1984 which left the patient with a uterine laceration and a retained fetal leg. She had to be hospitalizcd. Delta was sued after an abortion in 1974 that so badly damaged the patient's uterus that she needed a hysterectomy.

Another patient reported that after surgery at Delta in 1998, she had to have a colostomy.

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Washington Post ran straigtforward, albeit brief, coverage of March for Life. Without terse snarkiness. Without perpetuating stereotypes. Without hunting down the few counter-protesters and giving them equal word count and a bigger and better picture.

When I look at comments from supporters of PP's petition, I get the feeling that if these people ever find out about the way PP actually operates, there's gonna be such a backlash that there won't be a PP left standing anywhere in America, because angry people are gonna tear them down brick by brick.

On January 23, 1925, 34-year-old Kate Radochouski died at Chicago's Lakeside Hospital from complications of an abortion performed that day. The Homicide in Chicago database says that she died at the scene of the crime, and that there was an arrest on February 11. But there is no name given for the person arrested.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

On the anniversary of Roe, Frances Kissling, founder of Catholics [sic] for Free Choice, and Kate Michelman of NARAL published a letter in the Los Angeles Times: Abortion's battle of messages.

It's refreshing that Kissling and Michelman at least recognize their own movement's shortcomings. The problem is that they view them as strategic shortcomings, as failures to properly frame their support of abortion. They never look at the fact that maybe the reason they're losing ground is that there are inherent flaws in the stand they take.

I'd like to address just a couple of points where Kissling's and Michelman's analysis falls short:

In recent years, the antiabortion movement successfully put the nitty-gritty details of abortion procedures on public display, increasing the belief that abortion is serious business and that some societal involvement is appropriate.

Note that to Kissling and Michelman, it's not a matter of people recognizing that abortion is "serious business". It's the development of "the belief" that it is.

Those who are pro-choice have not convinced America that we support a public discussion of the moral dimensions of abortion.

That's because the moment you move to the "moral dimensions of abortion", the prochoice argument crashes and burns. Any child on the playgrounds can grasp "Pick on somebody your own size." And with ultrasounds now a routine part of prenatal care, it gets harder and harder for abortion advocates to cling to their claim that abortion doesn't involve attacking and killing a very small, defenseless somebody. The idea that mothers should protect their children, not kill them, is also a no-brainer. Staying away from abortion's moral aspects and sticking to slogans is a wise stategic move.

Likewise, we haven't convinced people that we are the ones actually doing things to make it possible for women to avoid needing abortions.

The "need" for abortion exists in women's heads, not their wombs. Going around promoting abortion as a cure all for anything that ails you isn't going to accomplish squat to reduce reliance on abortion.

Where the heck did that come from? How do you look at people pleading for a baby's life, and get, "They just are upset that his mother had sex in the first place"? This makes as much sense as looking at a program to stop domestic violence and saying, "These people just disapprove of marriage!"

So our claim that women can be trusted still falls on deaf ears.

The reason your "Trust Women" slogan "falls on deaf ears" is that you're presenting women as untrustworthy. You hold up an inherently abhorrent behavior -- a mother killing her own child -- as some sort of proof that women can be trusted. Why not hold up Ted Bundy and Ed Kemper as proof that we should "trust men"?

I hope Michelman and Kissling continue to slog it out with other abortion advocates. They're the best friends women and children can have within the prochoice movement: people saying, "Let's really look at what abortion is, does, and means." You can't do that for long and still have a movement embracing the practice.

On January 22, 1980, Vanessa Preston, the 22-year-old wife of a local minister, went with her husband and small son to Fairmount Clinic in Dallas. There, National Abortion Federation member Curtis Boyd performed a dilaton and extraction abortion on her. During the abortion, Vanessa went into a grand mal siezure and then into cardiac arrest.

To the credit of Boyd and the Fairmount staff, emergency procedures were immediately instituted. An ambulance was summoned, and Boyd and a nurse performed CPR and got Vanessa's heart to beat again. Before the ambulance arrived, Vanessa again went into cardiac arrest. Again, staff at Fairmount performed CPR. Paramedics and staff stabilized Vanessa for transport to the hospital.

About 40 minutes into exploratory surgery, trying to address a retained placenta and multiple vaginal punctures, Vanessa again went into cardiac arrest. She was given a total of 24 units of blood to try to keep her circulation entact despite her massive, unstoppable blood loss. For an hour and a half, hospital staff tried in vain to resuscitate Vanessa before finally pronouncing her dead.

An autopsy revealed that she had developed amniotic fluid embolism (AFE - amniotic fluid in the mother's bloodstream) and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC - a blood clotting disorder) during the abortion. This is what caused her cardiac arrest. When Boyd's staff resuscitated Vanessa, they caused a small laceration of her liver. This is typical in even properly performed CPR, and is not usually life-threatening. However, because of the DIC, Vanessa's blood couldn't clot, and she bled to death from the liver laceration. Since second-trimester evacuation abortions were still new (read "experimental") at the time, Boyd and his staff didn't realize that there was a risk of DIC.

Boyd, to his credit, reported Vanessa's death to the Centers for Disease Control. He also wrote a medical journal article about her death, warning other abortionists that DIC could occur during second-trimester evacuation abortions.

On January 22, 1900, Mrs. Barbara Shelgren, age 25, died at Augustana Hospital in Chicago of an abortion performed there that day. Paulina Bechtel, identified as a midwife, was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury and indicted of homicide by a grand jury, but the case was thrown out by Judge Holdom. Bechtel had been implicated in the abortion death of Ida Henry in 1899, but was identified as a physician in that case. According to Leslie Reagan in When Abortion Was a Crime, female physicians were often misidentified as midwives by the press when they were arrested for abortion charges, so I think it likely Bechtel was actually a physician.

On January 22, 1925, 17-year-old Jean Cohen died at Chicago's Montrose Hospital from an abortion performed earlier that day. On January 31, Louise Hagenow was arrested in Jean's death. Howover, Hagenow, though a known abortionist, was cleared in Jean's death. There were a number of deaths in Chicago attributed to either a Lucy Hagenow or a Louise Hagenow. I believe these to be the same woman. The deaths include Lottie Lowy, Bridget Masterson, Nina H. Pierce, Mary Moorehead, Elizabeth Welter, and Marie Hicht.

The last pre-Roe abortion death I have on this date in my files is actually a safe and legal abortion death. On January 22, 1972, 26-year-old Kathryn Strong died from hemorrhage and shock due to a uterine perforation she'd suffered during an abortion performed the day before at Civic Center Hospital in Oakland California. The abortion was performed by Dr. Harold Van Maren. Kathryn left a three-year-old son motherless.

Monday, January 21, 2008

When I was 30, I had a quasi-nervous breakdown about the abortion. I had no idea that it bothered me so much. I uncontrollably heaved waves of tears, and in between sobs blabbered about having an abortion, and how I murdered my unborn child. I went on to say that I felt such guilt at having a good life and that after the abortion, I went on to have fun and finish college and do all of the things I'd always hoped to do and that I didn't deserve my life.

Oh, I know that there are plenty of skeptics who will say, "Yeah, you just suddenly realized that it was the abortion that troubled you so much!" and want to claim that it's just bogus guilt. I have to say Kate's story reminds me of my own.

I was coming unglued and had no idea why. I thought it was ordinary stress piling up. Certain things were making me shake and cry, and after work I'd just get in my car and scream. I was wrestling something inside, but I had no idea what.

I went for professional counselling, and was in a group "wind down" relaxation session at the end of the day, where they just played what was supposed to be soothing music. One of the songs was "Somewhere Out There." A song I could never stand to listen to, but I never knew why. I would leave the room or turn off the radio or do anything to avoid that song. It just made me hurt. And now they were playing it when I was supposed to relax and get soothed and comfortable. That wasn't gonna happen.

My first urge was to just buck up, ignore the feelings, not let myself listen to the song but just grit my teeth and get through it. Then I thought, "I'm going to all this trouble to arrange counseling in a safe environment to find out why all these things are stressing me so much. I need to go with this."

I went down the hall, grabbed my counsellor, and just pleaded "Help me!" She took me into a private room and the minute I felt I was safe I just let go.

I sat there crying and screaming, "DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T LEAVE ME!" over and over and over again. And I suddenly knew exactly what was wrong. I was screaming for my brother, who had died in a freak accident when we'd been playing in the yard when I was just a little girl.

Of course a song about a brother and sister trying desperately to find each other would make me come unglued.

Suddenly everything clicked into place. I could see exactly why each of the things that had set me off had been setting me off. I could see exactly where each of those things had reminded me of the day my brother died. But I hadn't wanted to go there, to visit something that painful, so I'd tried to play the "It's just stress" card and hope I could hold on by my fingernails.

So I've had the experience of not knowing why things were triggering such an extreme emotional response, then suddenly having it come like a flash of lightning. Kate's story rings so true.

BTW, it still makes me cry. But at least now I know why, and it doesn't cripple me any more.

On January 21, 1961, Dr. Mandel M. Friedman contacted a Queens undertaker, asking him to arrange burial for 23-year-old Vivian Grant of New York. Friedman told the undertaker that Vivian had died of a heart ailment. The undertaker notified authorities, who determined that although Vivian had not been pregnant, Friedman had attempted to perform an abortion on her, causing her death. Friedman was charged with homicide and falsifying a death certificate.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

"Andrea" was 26 years old when she underwent a legal abortion at a New York City abortion facility on January 12, 1971. After her abortion, Andrea contracted an infection. Her system was unable to fight the infection, and she died on January 20, 1971, leaving behind six children.

Linda Fondren, age 21, had an abortion performed by Mohammad Pourtabib at Pre-Birth in Chicago on New Years Day, 1974. She suffered bleeding, but Pourtabib did not provide follow-up care. Linda was taken by ambulance to Michael Reese Hospital, in shock and needing emergency care. They would not admit her, but instead sent her to Cook County Hospital, where doctors performed an emergency hysterectomy. Linda remained hospitalized at Cook County. On January 16, doctors tried to drain fluids from Linda's chest and inadvertently punctured her spleen. Linda died on January 20 from "hemoperitoneum with splenic rupture following hysterectomy and earlier dilatation and curettage." She left behind a small child.

Mary Tennyson was 20 years old when she developed septic shock from an incomplete abortion performed in Georgia. She died on January 20, 1982.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Weddington's Betrayal of Women Serrin M. Foster President Feminists for Life of America

On the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, many will focus on the undeniable humanity of the unborn child now seen clearly by millions through sophisticated sonograms on Oprah as well as in Life and Newsweek cover stories.

Meanwhile, I will be reflecting on the impact of the choice made by attorney Sarah Weddington in 1973.

As her arguments for abortion before the Supreme Court made clear, Weddington saw the discrimination and other injustices faced by pregnant women. But she did not demand that these injustices be remedied. Instead, she demanded for women the “right” to submit to these injustices by destroying their pregnancies.

Weddington rightly pointed out the unmet needs of students: “…there are many schools where a woman is forced to quit if she becomes pregnant.” But Weddington didn’t argue against pregnancy discrimination or even for alternate solutions for a pregnant student.

Weddington did no better for women in the workplace. “In the matter of employment, she often is forced to quit at an early point in her pregnancy. She has no provision for maternity leave… She cannot get unemployment compensation under our laws, because the laws hold that she is not eligible for employment, being pregnant, and therefore is eligible for no unemployment compensation.”

For women with serious medical needs, she further noted: “There is no duty for employers to rehire women if they must drop out to carry a pregnancy to term. And, of course, this is especially hard on the many women in Texas who are heads of their own households and must provide for their already existing children.”

Weddington clearly saw the bind low-income women face when experiencing unplanned pregnancy: “At the same time, she can get no welfare to help her at a time when she has no unemployment compensation and she's not eligible for any help in getting a job to provide for herself.”

Weddington repeatedly said that women need “relief” from pregnancy, instead of arguing that women need relief from these injustices.

What if Weddington had used her legal acumen to challenge the system and address women’s needs?

By accepting pregnancy discrimination in school and workplace and the lack of support in society for pregnant women and parents, especially the poor, Weddington and the Supreme Court betrayed women and undermined the support women need and deserve.

Since then, millions of women have paid the price, struggling in school and the workplace without societal support. After all, when “it’s her body, it’s her choice,” it’s her problem.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion in America, half of all abortions are performed on college-age women.

Since 1994, Feminists for Life has worked to address the unmet needs of pregnant and parenting students and staff on college campuses. For the past decade FFL’s Pregnancy Resource Forums on campuses across the country have revealed the still-unmet needs of pregnant and parenting students — especially a lack of housing, child care, telecommuting options, maternity coverage and medical riders for additional children. FFL found there is rarely a central place on campus for pregnancy and parenting resources. Even when resources are available, they are often not publicized. For pregnant and parenting students kept in the dark about the help they need and deserve, perception is their reality.

This March, which is Women’s History Month, Feminists for Life is helping college students make history for women by hosting Rallies for Resources on campuses across the country — so that women don’t feel driven to choose between sacrificing their children or their education and career plans.

The proposed Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act, a bipartisan effort led by Senators Elizabeth Dole and Ben Nelson and Representatives Marcy Kaptur and Sue Myrick, would make grants available for up to 200 colleges and universities to host pregnancy resource forums, create resource centers on campus, and communicate available support on and off campus.

There was one thing Weddington got right. “Whether she's unmarried; whether she's pursuing an education; whether she's pursuing a career; whether she has family problems; all of the problems of personal and family life, for a woman, are bound up in the problem of abortion.”

Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women.

Thirty-five years after Weddington capitulated to inherently unfair practices against pregnant and parenting women, those on both sides of the abortion debate should unite and say “no” to the status quo. Clearly women deserve better.

Carolina Gutierrez had turned 21 on January 17 of 1996, but she hadn't spent her birthday going out and getting her first legal drink. She hadn't been in a bar or a club with her friends. She hadn't been at home with her husband and kids. She had spent her birthday critically ill in an intensive care unit of a Miami hospital,where she had been since December 21, when her family had called an ambulance in their alarm over her difficulty breathing.

Carolina had tried for two days to contact Maber Medical Center, where whe had undergone an abortion on the 19th, over her husband's objections. Her calls had yielded nothing. The voice mails she left had gone unanswered. When somebody finally did pick up the phone, whoever it was had hung up on her. The young mother, who had no medical insurance, had been suffering from fever and pain since the evening of the 19th.

Carolina had arrived at the emergency room already in septic shock. Doctors had performed an emergency hysterectomy, trying to halt the spread of infection from her perforated uterus, but the sepsis raged on. By her birthday, her fingers and toes were going black with gangrene. Two days later it was clear that her feet were going to have to be amputated if she was to have any hope at all of surviving. But first they had to get her stable enough to survive the surgery.

While Carolina lay unconscious in the intentisve care unit, her two children from a previous relationship spent most of their time in the care of relatives as her husband, Jose Linarte, spent as much time as he could by her side, waiting and praying.

The kids had been without their mother for nearly a month. How much longer they'd be without her remained to be seen.

Abortion in 1940 remains a popular search. Let's look at the whole decade: While abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. The death I know of is Pauline Shirley, 1940, but we're taking NOW's word for it, and remember they claim that Becky Bell died from an illegal or self-induced abortion.

Valentine's Day murder: Well, I have John Baxter Hamilton (pictured), that compassionate provider of vital reproductive health care services, champion of women's lives, who bludgeoned his wife to death in their bathroom on Valentine's Day of 2001.

Abortion video. There's one here. And here (GRAPHIC! CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK!):

Dr. Benjamin Munson was the South Dakota back-alley butcher who was magically converted to a provider of safe and legal abortion services by the Supreme Court in 1973. He promptly demonstrated how much better off women were by sending Linda Padfield home to die of a septic abortion. For an encore, he did the same thing to Yvonne Mesteth. I know of two other criminal abortionists whose practices were legalized by courts or legislators, and who thanked their benefactors by turning around and killing two abortion patients: Milan Vuitch did the fatal safe and legal abortions on Georgianna English and Wilma Harris, and Jesse Ketchum safely and legally performed fatal abortions on Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner.

Kansas Governor Sebelius chose somebody who doesn't have a huge financial connection to abortionist George Tiller as the new state Attorney General. The former AG, Paul Morrison, who got a huge financial and logistical campaign boost thanks to Tiller, was forced to resign in the wake of a sex scandal. Chris Biggs, who looked like a shoe-in for the empty post, found his own campaign coffers roughly $250,000 to the richer thanks to Tiller's influence with Kansas abortion-advocacy PACS. So Sebelius is learning to avoid at least the appearance of brazen corruption. Only time will tell if she has leanrned to shun the corruption itself.

Speaking of corruption:

From the Paging Captain Obvious files: Judge testifies Planned Parenthood records were falsified. The records were part of an investigation into whether or not PP was performing illegal third-trimester abortions: "... Judge Richard D. Anderson testified ... that he believed that medical records supplied to him by Planned Parenthood had been altered. Anderson further testified that he sought the opinion of a police handwriting expert, who confirmed his suspicions that information regarding the gestational age of pregnancies had been tampered with."

And while we're in Kansas, keep in mind when viewing this that Sebelius vetoed an abortion clinic clean-up bill:

Click here to see Troy Neuman taking Mark Crutcher on a tour of the vacated abortion clinic Operation Rescue bought. Mind you, this was a National Abortion Federation member facility. Photos from before OR removed the furnishings and abandoned medical records are here.

Andre Nehorayoff is the legalized back-alley butcher who was responsible for the deaths of two patients, dubbed "Ellen" and "Faye". During a hearing about whether or not to yank his license, the medical board noted, "When asked about the cases where he was found negligent for not using laminaria, Dr. Nehorayoff said this was basically a result of his lack of knowledge of the proper use of this procedure, which was relatively new at that time. He explained that he subsequently worked as a volunteer for Planned Parenthood for a three month period (emphesis mine) and learned about the appropriate use of laminaria." What the heck was PP doing, letting this quack volunteer for them in a setting where he'd be evidently doing patient care, after he'd already killed two patients and nearly killed several others? Evidently he did manage to get his license back, because he seems to be practicing in New York. On the one hand, he seems to be following up on his promise to the medical board that he'd stop doing abortions. That's nice. But on the other hand, he's practicing obstetrics. I'd not trust him with my health or life or especially with my unborn baby. Can't this guy do hair transplants or something, where nobody's life is hanging in the balance?

And my on-site search engine is acting up again, so that's all for now. More later!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

On this date in 1996, Carolina Gutierrez's 21st birthday came and went as she remained critically ill in an intensive care unit of a Miami hospital. She had been hospitalized since December 21 of 1995, when her family had called an ambulance in their alarm over her difficulty breathing. Two days of trying to contact Maber Medical Center, where Carolina had undergone an abortion on the 19th, over her husband's objections, had yielded no help. The voice mails she left had gone unanswered. When somebody finally did pick up the phone, whoever it was had hung up on her. The young mother, who had no medical insurance, had been suffering from fever and pain since the evening of the 19th.

She had arrived at the emergency room already in septic shock. Doctors had performed an emergency hysterectomy, trying to halt the spread of infection from her perforated uterus, but the sepsis raged on.

Carolina spent her birthday as she had spent Christmas and New Year's: on a respirator, sepsis raging through her body. Her two children from a previous relationship spent most of their time in the care of relatives as her husband, Jose Linarte, spent as much time as he could by Carolina's side, waiting and praying.

The sepsis was getting worse. Carolina's fingers and toes were turning black with gangrene. But she was still hanging on, fighting for her life. The staff weren't going to give up on her.

I am highly disappointed to see that people are still believing the lies that the abortion lobby has generated about Becky Bell.

I have abstracted thousands of abortion malpractice cases and over a hundred autopsy reports on women and girls who have died from abortion complications. Becky Bell's autopsy report, which I have also read, clearly shows no signs whatsoever of post-abortion infection. What it shows is pneumonia, the same strain that killed Muppets creator Jim Henson.

Even Becky's parents admitted that she was still pregnant when they brought her to the hospital: the doctor told them he wasn't sure the baby would survive. Becky's best friend told a Reuter's reporter that Becky was still considering running away to a home for unwed mothers in California shortly before her death. Becky had brochures for that home in her purse when she died.

Becky's grief-stricken parents latched onto the word "abortion" on her autopsy report, evidently not realizing that this is the medical term for a miscarriage. Their confusion is understandable. That the abortion lobby decided to capitalize on their confusion is deplorable. That the news media never question the abortion lobby is inexcusable.

Meanwhile you continue to ignore teens who died of secret abortions. Dawn Ravenelle was 13 years old when her mother got a call to come to St. Luke's hospital, where Dawn was "fighting for her life". Erica Richardson's aunt arranged a secret abortion that left the girl dead from an embolism. Jammie Garcia probably would have survived the complications of her abortion had she not kept it a secret, thus delaying medical care until it was too late. Sandra Kaiser went into a terrible depression after her clandestine abortion and ended up committing suicide by throwing herself off an overpass into traffic. Tamiia Russell was brought for a secret abortion by the sister of the 24-year-old man who had been sexually abusing her. Why are these girls' deaths not newsworthy?

Becky Bell, who Planned Parenthood still drags out periodically, died in 1988 from an abortion that only took place in the heads of abortion profiteers. That same year, 17-year-old Teresa Causey died of an actual abortion that really did take place -- legally. Denise Montoya, age 15, met the same fate. As did Katrina Poole, age 16. And since then, safe and legal abortion has claimed the lives of other underage girls, including these that I know of:

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

One year ago today I got the phone call. The phone call that I was praying would be good news, and never thought in a million years would be bad. My Amino results were in "I'm sorry, your baby has Down syndrome."

One year ago today I was being held in my husband's arms, crying my heart out. Crying like I never cried before.

One year ago today I heard the dreaded offer "Have you considered terminating the pregnancy?" I felt ill.

One year ago today was the worse day of my life.

Today I woke up hearing "Coo, ah goo, baaaaaaaaaa" and looked over and saw an adorable baby grinning at me through the crib bars.

Today I got kisses and laughs and smiles and snuggles.

Today I felt more proud than I ever had before, seeing this little baby getting up on his hands and knees, getting stronger sitting unsupported and bursting with pride.

Today I wondered why I was so sad one year ago, as one year ago I received news that God has chosen me to receive the biggest blessing He could possibly give.

National Abortion Federation Hotline. These guys, who promise safety but simply give you a referral to a member, along with heartfelt assurances that all their members are top notch. Yeah, including the places that killed these women.

Abortion video. There's one here. And here (GRAPHIC! CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK!):

Philip Rand San Diego wife murdered. I hope not! But just for reference sake, here is who Rand is.

cheap abortion clinics in the new orleans area. Well, there was A. James Whitmore III, who got his license suspended for quackery. There was Sydney Knight, who killed Janet Blaum. As much as I don't recommend abortion in general, I'd have to specifically say to avoid the cut-rate fly-by-nights.

On January 16, 1937, Dr. Samuel Roth performed an abortion in his office on a woman who then died. I have been unable to uncover her name. Roth's license was suspended at the time. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on December 23, 1941, and was sentenced to a year in prison.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

There is one less seedy abortionist practicing in Michigan. The medical board yanked the license of Pornpichit Sethavarangura after a TV station's sting operation caught him on film offering illegal abortions for $150 a pop in his filthy, run-down Detroit abortion mill. The abortions in question were illegal because he violated state laws for informed consent and parental notification. He could possibly also face prison time for his crimes.

Sethavarangura, of course, treated this as a terrible blow for the women of Detroit. "They will miss me," he said.

Laura Hope Smith (pictured) died in September of 2007 of apparent anesthesia complications during an abortion performed by Dr. Rapin Osathanondh at his Massachusets practice, which he called Woman Health Center, probably to make it seem to be a clinic rather than an ordinary doctor's office.

"Dr. sella abortion"? Sella is one of Teflon Tiller's staff of "No Fetus Can Beat Us!" abortionists at his Wichita late term abortion mill. Michelle Armesto reports that it was Sella who did her abortion, an abortion she was only doing under intense and unrelenting pressure from her family, an abortion in the third trimester. Armesto also reports that Sella falsely charted her fetus as "non-viable," evidenly in a so-far-successful ploy to go through a loophole in the Kansas law violating post-viability abortions.

Eurice Agbagaa, a 26-year-old immigrant from Ghana, went to Abram Zelikman for an abortion on January 7, 1989. Zelikman estimated the pregnancy as 11 to 12 1/2 weeks. He performed the abortion at about 1PM, then sent Eurice to the recovery room.

Over the next 2 1/2 hours, Eurice bled so heavily that the receptionist, Yolanda Penalzer, became alarmed and asked Zelikman to do something. Zelikman told her that the bleeding was normal and that she should put an ice bag on the patient. He then left the facility, leaving Yolada to care for the patients in recovery.

Yolanda continued to be concerned about Eurice's bleeding, and tried repeatedly to reach Zelikman at his home, but couldn't contact him. Finally she called an ambulance. The ambulance crew found Yolanda performing CPR on Eurice, who was in shock. They were able to restore her breathing and transport her to a hospital, where an emergency hysterectomy was done. It was determined that Eurice had actually been at least 19 weeks pregnant. Eurice had a perforated uterus and severed abdominal artery.

Eurice survived the surgery and was put on life support, but remained in a coma until her death in the early morning of January 15.

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